Get Your Guts In Gear!

I am so excited to finally be able to talk about this project with you guys! Ok, so I will start at the very beginning. Last year around this time I stumbled onto Debby's blog She Knits by the Seashore. She was running a fundraiser for Get Your Guts in Gear, a bicycle race that funds research for IBD and Crohn's/Colitis research. I thought this was so cool, because I have Crohn's disease that, thanks to relatively recent research, is in remission. I emailed Debby and we started talking. I learned from her that her husband also has Crohn's and that her cat Charlie had the feline version of IBD. Charlie was also the wonderful spokescat for the fundraiser and was completely adorable. You can even check him out and the post from last year's fundraiser here.


Now for the sad news. After the fundraiser, we kept in contact reading each other's blogs and such. Last Fall Debby posted up the sad news that Charlie had passed away due to complications with his illness. I was so sad on her behalf! I wrote my condolences and asked her if there was any way to donate money on Charlie's behalf for Crohn's & Colitis research. The research that they do for the human disease in turn helps the animal version too. We talked back and forth and Debby came up with the idea of my painting skeins of yarn in Charlie's honor to give out as prizes for this year's fundraiser. I thought it was an awesome idea! I have also added one little thing to it. I have dyed up some extra skeins of the Charlie colorway and I am going to sell them in my shop! I am donating 50% of every sale to the fundraiser! This yarn will be a limited edition run. I will dye up skeins for as long as the fundraiser is running (which is until Memorial day weekend) and then there will not be any more!


So how can you help? Well there are several ways that you can participate! You can buy a skein of exclusive Charlie yarn. You can donate to the fundraiser for any amount on She Knits by the Sea Shore. You can tell your friends and family all about it. Really anything you can do will be wonderful. You can read more about the fundraiser on Debby's blog too. She has much better details about the race and about her husband and Charlie.